Aircraft engines are used for a number of purposes, including propulsion and/or driving various other components with electrical, pneumatic, and/or hydraulic power. Generally, a gas turbine engine includes a compressor section, a combustion section, and a turbine section. During operation, the compressor section draws in ambient air, compresses the air with one or more compressors, and supplies the compressed air to the combustion section. In addition to the compressed air, the combustion section receives fuel via a fuel injection assembly, mixes the fuel with the compressed air, ignites the mixture, and supplies the high energy combustion gases to the turbine section to drive one or more turbines, including a shaft that may be used to drive the compressor and other components.
During operation, the ambient air drawn into the engine may contain undesirable particles, such as sand and dust, that may cause issues for engine components. In order to prevent such issues, at least a portion of the undesirable particles are removed from the air using an inlet particle separator, such as an inertial inlet particle separator arranged an inlet portion of the engine. Typically, inlet particle separators attempt to separate the clean air, which is guided into the engine, from the contaminated air with the particles, which is discharged.
Although some inlet particle separators are successful in providing relatively clean air to the engine, it may be challenging to efficiently remove particles, particularly small or fine particles. If unaddressed, insufficient removal of fine particles may lead to erosion, obstruction, or glassing issues. This may be a particularly relevant issue in the turbine section of the engine in which cooling arrangements include small holes and passages that may be subject to blockage.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide improved methods and systems for separating particles from air flows in a vehicular engine, particularly for small particles. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.